CAPITALIZATION AND PUNCTUATION Week 17-23
CORRECT SENTENCES When you write, you must show where each sentence starts and ends. Capital letters show where a sentence starts and End Marks show where it ends. End Marks: Statement: Period (. ) Imperative or Command: Period (. ) Interrogative or Question: Question Mark (? ) Exclamatory or Exclamation: Exclamation Point (! )
PROPER NOUNS Proper nouns that name specific persons, places, and things start with a capital letter. When titles and initials are used with names, you should capitalize them as well. Mario Gomez, Miss Diane Dawson, Mrs. Carol M. Ling, Principal G. Coffin Capitalize family titles when they are used as names or as parts of names. Today Grandmother arrived at the house. Did Uncle Harry bring presents? Do not capitalize family titles when they are not used as names. My grandmother came to visit. Our uncle is coming to dinner.
PROPER NOUNS FOR PLACES AND THINGS Always capitalize the names of particular places and things. When a proper noun is more that one word remember to begin each important word with a capital letter. Proper Nouns That Name Places and Things Places Street Pebble Creek Road City Dallas State Colorado Country Mexico Building Museum of Science Mountain Pikes Peak Park Acadia National Park Water Indian Ocean Things Days Monday Months February Holidays Fourth of July Groups New York Yankees
PROPER ADJECTIVES PROPER ADJECTIVES are adjectives made from proper nouns. Like proper nouns, proper adjectives, begin with a capital letter. If a proper adjective has more than one word, capitalize all the words. A painting from Japan Music from South America A rug from Turkey Bread from France Animals from North America Dances from Greece Japanese painting South American music Turkish rug French bread North American animals Greek Dances
ABBREVIATIONS ABBREVIATIONS are a shortened form of a word. The abbreviation stands for the whole word. Most abbreviations start with a capital letter and end with a period. Use them only in special kinds of writing, such as addresses and lists. Titles Mr. Mister Jr. Junior Addresses Rd. Road St. Street Some Common Abbreviations Sr. Dr. Ave. Blvd. Senior Doctor Avenue Boulevard Mrs. Ms. Co. P.O. married woman any woman Company Post Office Months Jan. January Apr. April Sept. September Days Sun. Sunday Wed. Wednesday Thurs. Thursday States CA California TX Texas AZ Arazona Initials E.B. Elwyn Brooks G.W. Grant Coffin B.S. Bob Smith
COMMAS IN A SERIES When you talk, you often pause briefly as you speak. When you write, you must use a comma (, ) to tell your reader where to pause. Commas help make the meaning of your sentences clear. Incorrect: Alexa bought oatmeal bread cheese nuts. Commas are needed to separate the items in a list. The list in a sentence is called a SERIES when there are more than two items. Place a comma after each item, then place the word and or or before the last item in the series. There is no comma after the and or or. Correct: Alexa bought oatmeal, bread, cheese, and nuts.
MORE USES FOR COMMAS When you speak, you pause briefly if you begin the answer to a question with yes, no, or well. Use a comma after there words to show the pause in your writing. Yes, I have the horse in the barn. Use a comma when you are addressing or talking directly to a person and you use their name. Mario, are you coming with us? We wondered, Mario, which trail will you take. We are very happy that you are going with us, Mario!
EVEN MORE USES FOR COMMAS *Commas are also used to separate the parts of a compound sentence. The class wrote a survey, distributed it in classes, and students filled it out. *Commas set off the name of a person who is directly spoken to. From a distance, Sue, that looks like a blue whale. *Commas separate an appositive from the rest of the sentence. Blue whales, the fastest kind, are found in all oceans. *Commas are used to separate complex sentences. Although whales live in the ocean, they are not fish.
COMMAS IN DATES AND ADDRESSES *In a date use a comma between the day and the year. The battle occurred on September 28, 1945. *Do not use a comma if you only have a month and day or month and year. The battle occurred in September 1945. The battle occurred on September 28 th. *In addresses commas appear between City and State, City and Country, Street and City, but not the state and zip code. The flight went from Miami, Florida, to Cancun, Mexico. Send the box to 12 Mac Lane, Trenton, New Jersey 08601.
CAPITALS AND COMMAS IN LETTERS Be sure to capitalize the greeting, and the first word of the closing. Place a comma after the greeting in friendly letter and a COLON ( : ) after the greeting in a business letter. Place a comma after the closing. Greetings Dear Sir or Madam: Dear Millie, Closings Love, Your friend, Sincerely yours,
INTERJECTIONS An INTERJECTION is a word or words that show feeling or emotion. If the interjection shows strong feeling, it stands alone and is followed by an exclamation point. Wow! That boat is big! Common Interjections Hurray Hey Oh, no Well Good grief Ah Oops Whew Okay Oh Ouch Wow Good Grief! The sails are huge! If the interjection shows mild feeling, it begins the sentence and is followed by a comma Ah, the breeze is nice. Well, let s go sailing.
QUOTATION MARKS Sometimes you will want to write a conversation between to or more people. When you write the exact words that a speaker says, you are writing a DIRECT QUOTATION. A direct quotation can come at the beginning or the end of a sentence. Use QUOTATION MARKS ( ) before and after a speaker s exact words. Do not place additional information about the speaker inside the quotation marks. End of the sentence: Brittany said, All birds have feathers. Heidi asked, Can all birds fly? Beginning of the sentence: Say hello to the students, the teacher suggested. Paul is a parrot! I exclaimed.
QUOTATIONS AT THE END OF A SENTENCE More punctuation marks as well as capital letters are needed to write a quotation correctly at the end of a sentence. Use a comma to separate the description from the exact quote. Capitalize the first word of the sentence and the quote. Place the End Mark inside the quotation marks at the end of the quote. Ali asked, Have you read about the fox and the grapes?
QUOTATIONS AT THE BEGINNING OF A SENTENCE Punctuation marks as well as capital letters are also needed to write a quotation correctly at the beginning of a sentence. Capitalize the first word of the quote only. The End Mark for the quotation can be a question mark, exclamation mark or a comma but not a period. The first word of the information about the speaker is not capitalized. There is an additional End Mark at the end of the sentence. That is my favorite fable, he exclaimed. When writing DIALOGUE each new speaker starts a new paragraph.
TITLES When you write the title of a book, a magazine, newspaper or a website, capitalize the first, the last, and the most important word. Capitalize words like and, in, of, to, a, and the only when they are the first word of the title. When typing titles are set apart with italics, when handwriting they are underlined. Danger on Midnight River Children of the Midnight Sun When Typing: Is Tom Sawyer your favorite book? When handwriting: Is Tom Sawyer your favorite book? When it is a short story, song, article, book chapter, or poem you use quotation marks. I recited the poem Take Sky.
SEMICOLONS AND COLONS Use a SEMICOLON ( ; ) to join the two independent clauses of a compound sentence when the clauses are not joined by a coordinating conjunction such as and, or, or but. The jet took off; we were on our way to Kenya. The flight was calm; all the passengers slept. The COLON ( : ) is used when writing the time of day, after the greeting in a business letter, and setting off a list of items from the rest of a sentence. We arrived at 7:34 a.m. Dear Mr. Smith: We took the following: luggage, guidebooks, and passports.
APOSTROPHES APOSTROPHES ( ) are used to form possessive nouns, and contractions. Possessive Nouns architect the architect s plans carpenters the carpenters association workmen the workmen s footprints Contractions: I have I ve you will you ll did not didn t
HYPHENS, DASHES, AND PARENTHESES Use a HYPHEN ( - ) to separate the syllables of a word at the end of a line of writing, in the middle of a compound words and numbers. Two groups of animals with cold blood are reptiles and amphibians. twenty-four sister-in-law DASHES ( - ) are sued to signal a sudden break of thought in a sentence. The Komodo dragon a good name for this lizard is huge. PARENTHESES are used when you add an explanation in a sentence. The encyclopedia (Volume 12) has an entry about lizards.